README

= Rack, a modular Ruby webserver interface
Rack provides a minimal, modular and adaptable interface for developing
web applications in Ruby. By wrapping HTTP requests and responses in
the simplest way possible, it unifies and distills the API for web
servers, web frameworks, and software in between (the so-called
middleware) into a single method call.
The exact details of this are described in the Rack specification,
which all Rack applications should conform to.
== Supported web servers
The included *handlers* connect all kinds of web servers to Rack:
* Mongrel
* Mongrel/Swiftcore (require it before Rack.)
* WEBrick
* FCGI
* CGI
Any valid Rack app will run the same on all these handlers, without
changing anything.
== Supported web frameworks
The included *adapters* connect Rack with existing Ruby web frameworks:
* Camping
* Rails (alpha)
* more to come soon, ...
These frameworks include Rack adapters in their distributions:
* Ramaze
* Maveric
* Racktools::SimpleApplication
== Available middleware
Between the server and the framework, Rack can be customized to your
applications needs using middleware, for example:
* Rack::URLMap, to route to multiple applications inside the same process.
* Rack::CommonLogger, for creating Apache-style logfiles.
* Rack::ShowException, for catching unhandled exceptions and
presenting them in a nice and helpful way with clickable backtrace.
* Rack::File, for serving static files.
* ...
All these components use the same interface, which is described in
detail in the Rack specification. You can choose to use them exactly
in the way you want.
== Convenience
If you want to develop outside of existing frameworks, implement your
own ones, or develop middleware, Rack provides many helpers to create
Rack applications quickly and without doing the same web stuff all
over:
* Rack::Request, which also provides query string parsing and
multipart handling.
* Rack::Response, for convenient generation of HTTP replies and
cookie handling.
* Rack::MockRequest and Rack::MockResponse for efficient and quick
testing of Rack application without real HTTP round-trips.
== rackup
rackup is a useful tool for running Rack applications, which uses the
Rack::Builder DSL to configure middleware and build up applications
easily.
rackup automatically figures out the environment it is run in, and
runs your application as FastCGI, CGI, or standalone with Mongrel or
WEBrick---all from the same configuration.
== Quick start
Try the lobster!
Either with the embedded WEBrick starter:
ruby -Ilib lib/rack/lobster.rb
Or with rackup:
bin/rackup -Ilib example/lobster.ru
By default, the lobster is found at http://localhost:9292.
== Installing with RubyGems
A Gem of Rack is available. You can install it with:
gem install rack
I also provide a local mirror of the gems (and development snapshots)
at my site:
gem install rack --source http://chneukirchen.org/releases/gems
== History
* March 3rd, 2007: First public release 0.1.
* May 16th, 2007: Second public release 0.2.
* HTTP Basic authentication.
* Cookie Sessions.
* Static file handler.
* Improved Rack::Request.
* Improved Rack::Response.
* Added Rack::ShowStatus, for better default error messages.
* Bug fixes in the Camping adapter.
* Removed Rails adapter, was too alpha.
== Contact
Please mail bugs, suggestions and patches to
<mailto:chneukirchen@gmail.com>.
Darcs repository ("darcs send" is welcome for patches):
http://chneukirchen.org/repos/rack
You are also welcome to join the #rack channel on irc.freenode.net.
== Thanks to
* Michael Fellinger, for the helpful discussion, bugfixes and a better
Rack::Request interface.
* Christoffer Sawicki, for the Rails adapter.
* Tim Fletcher, for the HTTP authentication code.
* Armin Ronacher, for the logo and racktools.
* Aredridel, for bug fixing.
* Gary Wright, for proposing a better Rack::Response interface.
* Alexander Kellett for testing the Gem and reviewing the announce.
* Marcus Rückert, for help with configuring and debugging lighttpd.
* The WSGI team for the well-done and documented work they've done and
Rack builds up on.
== Copyright
Copyright (C) 2007 Christian Neukirchen <http://purl.org/net/chneukirchen>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to
deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the
rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or
sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
== Links
Rack:: <http://rack.rubyforge.org/>
Rack's Rubyforge project:: <http://rubyforge.org/projects/rack>
Camping:: <http://camping.rubyforge.org/>
Ramaze:: <http://ramaze.rubyforge.org/>
Maveric:: <http://maveric.rubyforge.org/>
racktools:: <http://lucumr.pocoo.org/trac/repos/racktools/>
Christian Neukirchen:: <http://chneukirchen.org/>